In his own words: USO is 'home away from home'

Jon Thompson, former fleet master chief of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, is president and CEO of the USO of Hampton Roads.

Over the last five years, we've seen a large increase in the families needing special events - distractions - because being the family member of a deployed service member, particularly now in Afghanistan and Iraq, the pressures both physically and mentally that the families go through, particularly the Army and Marine Corps, where you have multiple deployments, that puts a lot of stress on the families.

It's not only the amount of the deployments but the uncertainty of how long the deployment is going to last and is their service member going to come home.

We don't try to psychoanalyze any of this. We just base it on what they're looking for from us and for the most part it's a place to meet, a place that they can talk freely, they can have a soda or a sandwich.

For the service members, we've seen a large increase of ones coming back with some sort of disabilities, be it physical or mental, so that puts an added dimension on our center director to make sure we create as stress-free an environment as we can inside our centers....

There is a significant amount of military that come back after being an IA - an individual augmentee - and a lot of these are reservists, which is an added twist to this because they have families somewhere else, but when they return they have special ty medical issues that keep them here six, nine, sometimes 12 months and so that, combined with being away from home, our center is critical, because that's their home away from home.

We try all the innovative ways we can to make sure we support them. It's like plates on a stick. We're trying to make sure we can accommodate everybody.

I did 30 years in the Navy, so I made seven deployments, and five of those were while I was married and had a family, so I have a lot of empathy and sympathy for those that are getting ready to deploy.

All our center directors have some relationship with the military, whether they're military spouses or served themselves. So they know firsthand, too, what it's all about so, you know, when they get a hug or a pat on the back when they're getting ready to go, they know it means something from the person they're getting it from.

Service in general is so hard, and when you throw armed conflict on top of it, it's just amazing that these kids are still willing to volunteer to serve their country every day. Because they're not stupid and they're not uninformed.

They know exactly what they're getting into, and to be able to do that - I just have the utmost respect for them, and I wish we could provide more.

I mean, there are so many things we could do if I had an unlimited checkbook.

As told to Matthew Jones, (757) 446-2949, matthew.jones@pilotonline.com

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